Short Interest in Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) Grows By 27.1%

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,250,000 shares, an increase of 27.1% from the April 30th total of 9,640,000 shares. Approximately 19.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,040,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.0 days.

Shift4 Payments Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FOUR opened at $94.16 on Thursday. Shift4 Payments has a twelve month low of $57.45 and a twelve month high of $127.50. The firm has a market cap of $8.34 billion, a PE ratio of 30.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 2.97 and a current ratio of 1.38. The business has a fifty day moving average of $84.04 and a 200-day moving average of $97.40.

Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.31. Shift4 Payments had a return on equity of 29.00% and a net margin of 6.89%. The company had revenue of $368.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $886.09 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.54 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Shift4 Payments will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Shift4 Payments news, CFO Nancy Disman sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.98, for a total transaction of $849,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 177,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,094,317.56. This represents a 5.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 25.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Shift4 Payments

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 775 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. Elequin Capital LP increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 62.3% in the fourth quarter. Elequin Capital LP now owns 297 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 41.7% in the first quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 425 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 31.4% in the first quarter. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. now owns 532 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Finally, Triumph Capital Management increased its position in Shift4 Payments by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Triumph Capital Management now owns 4,360 shares of the company’s stock worth $452,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on FOUR shares. Truist Financial started coverage on Shift4 Payments in a report on Monday. They issued a “hold” rating and a $97.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Shift4 Payments from $109.00 to $107.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Shift4 Payments in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $80.00 target price on the stock. Barclays dropped their price objective on Shift4 Payments from $117.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Shift4 Payments in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Shift4 Payments currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $115.35.

About Shift4 Payments

Shift4 Payments, Inc (NYSE FOUR) provides integrated payment processing and technology solutions in the United States. Its payments platform provides omni-channel card acceptance and processing solutions, including end-to-end payment processing for various payment types; merchant acquiring; proprietary omni-channel gateway; complementary software integrations; integrated and mobile point-of-sale (POS) solutions; security and risk management solutions; and reporting and analytical tools, as well as tokenization, risk management/underwriting, payment device and chargeback management, fraud prevention, and gift card solutions.